When the body of a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted Icelandic village of Kálfshamarvík, Ari Thór Arason uncovers a startling and terrifying connection to an earlier series of deaths, as the killer remains on the loose...

'Jonasson's books have breathed new life into Nordic noir' Sunday Express

'Jónasson skillfully alternates points of view and shifts of time ... The action builds to a shattering climax' Publishers Weekly

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík.

Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?
With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim's mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier.

As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland's bestselling crime writers.

'Traditional and beautifully finessed ...morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons' Andrew Taylor, Independent

'Jonasson has come up with a bleak plot and characters, but his evocation of Iceland's chilly landscape is hard to put down' The Sunday Times Crime Club

Laura Wilson, Guardian

'A chiller of a thriller' Carol Memmott, Washington Post

'Required reading' New York Post

'Puts a lively, sophisticated spin on the Agatha Christie model, taking it down intriguing dark alleys' Kirkus Reviews

'The best sort of gloomy storytelling' Chicago Tribune

'The prose is stark and minimal, the mood dank and frost-tipped. It's also bleakly brilliant, although perhaps best read with a warming shot of whisky by your side' Claire Allfree, Metro

'A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens ... first rate and highly recommended' Lee Child

'Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read' Peter James

'A modern take on an Agatha Christie-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom' Ian Rankin

'Seductive ... Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully' Ann Cleaves

'Whiteout, in an excellently smooth translation by Quentin Bates, leaves a sense of unease and sadness that will linger for quite a while' Ewa Sherman, Crime Review

'Reading a Ragnar Jónasson thriller can be quite exhausting ... though in the pleasantest possible way' Max Easterman, European Literature Network

Auteur

Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jónasson was born in Reykjavík, and currently works as a lawyer, while teacher copyright law at the Reykjavík University Law School. In the past, he's worked in TV and radio, including as a news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. Before embarking on a writing career, Ragnar translated fourteen Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic, and has had several short stories published in German, English and Icelandic literary magazines. Ragnar set up the first overseas chapter of the CWA (Crime Writers' Association) in Reykjavík, and is co-founder of the International crime-writing festival Iceland Noir. Ragnar's debut thriller, Snowblind became an almost instant bestseller when it was published in June 2015 with Nightblind (winner of the Dead Good Reads Most Captivating Crime in Translation Award) and then Blackout and Rupture following soon after. To date, Ragnar Jónasson has written five novels in the Dark Iceland series, which has been optioned for TV by On the Corner. He lives in Reykjavík with his wife and two daughters.
Visit him on Twitter @ragnarjo or at ragnarjonasson.com